A new adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story Lot No. 249 is coming to BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on Christmas Eve.
Adapted by actor and writer Mark Gatiss, the 30-minute ghost story stars Kit Harington, Freddie Fox, Colin Ryan, John Heffernan, James Swanton, Jonathan Rigby and Andrew Horton.
Synopsis:
1881. Old College, Oxford plays host to three very different young academics: Abercrombie Smith, a model of Victorian manhood, clean of limb and sound of mind; Monkhouse Lee, a delicate and unworldly student from Siam; and the strange and exotic Edward Bellingham, whose arcane research into Ancient Egypt is the talk of the campus.
Could Bellingham’s unnatural experiments bring the breath of life to the horrifying bag of bones tagged Lot No.249?
Gatiss describes the story as “an overripe box of chocolates – it’s a typically full-blooded Victorian melodrama with elements of Boy’s Own story as well as that Doyle/Rider Haggard feel.”
“It’s the original “mummy” story as far as we know. It’s certainly one of the first stories to feature a mummy as an instrument of revenge. So everything we associate with the Mummy from Hollywood to Hammer starts here. It’s got a terrific cast and it should be a delicious Christmas treat.”